nTop Platform 2.01 - What's New

Summary

nTopology’s nTop Platform 2.1 is here! This release has some improvements to the usability of the system, as well as an improvement to the functionality of the Random Points in Volume block. The usability improvements include a dragging interaction from the properties to the tree, as well as an improvement in the support for headers or comments in imported CSV files. The functionality improvements of the Random Points in Volume block allow for more accurate results.

New Features and Improvements

• Drag Property Blocks to Tree

• CSV Header/Comment Support

• FE Model Property Access

• Random Points in Volume Improvement

• Usage Improvements

CSV Header/Comment Support

• Any block that imports a CSV file will now support files that have a header or comment, denoted with a # at the beginning.
• Any line that starts with a # will be ignored when processed.
• This currently affects the blocks Import Points, Import Real Point Map, and Import Vector Point Map.

Drag Property Blocks to Tree

• You can now drag values straight from the property list into the notebook.
• When you drag a property chip into the tree, it will automatically create a variable for it and place it where you drag it to.

FE Model Property Access

• Quickly access useful information associated with a specific FE Model, such as the FE mesh for setting up loads & boundary conditions and element count.
• This also enables workflows where the FE model is imported or created using a custom block as the underlying FE Meshes can be accessed from the property tree. See the new property structure below:
• FE Model
  • list FE Component
    • FE Mesh
      • Element count
      • Node count
  • list FE Attribute
    • Material
      • Frame
      • Region
  • list Connectors

Random Points in Volume Improvement

• The Random Points in Body block has been improved to return a more accurately spaced set of points, based on user input.
• Files that use the previous version of the block with less accurate values will still load in and return the previous values, and you can switch to the new one by selecting it in the ribbon or searching for it in the Add Block search bar.

Usage Improvements

• Axis block now has a vector property.
• Homogenization results can now be utilized as a material.
• Offsetting the body of a honeycomb lattice with a thickness of 0 mm no longer results in a hard crash.
• nTop Body/Mesh from CAD Body no longer throws runtime errors if the tolerance is too low.
• Random points in body “point spacing” now returns the correct spacing. In previous versions, the point spacing was larger than specified.
• The transfer function now work with implicits.
• Thermal Analysis with disconnected regions no longer leads to a failed solver.
• Users can now type “um” for units of microns.